If you're worried that some young whippersnapper may someday become your boss, you may breathe a little easier at the latest finding: Young professionals really don't want that type of job. That's according to the latest research from headhunting and recruitment company Robert Walters, which found that 52% of individuals in the Gen Z demographic—people born between 1997 and 2012, some of whom obviously aren't in the workforce yet—don't have a desire to become middle managers. "It's not that Gen Z doesn't respect leadership," Lucy Bisset, director of Robert Walters, tells Forbes. "It's that they associate management with stress, limited autonomy, and poor work-life balance."
This phenomenon of management avoidance is referred to as "conscious unbossing," which Forbes, the Independent, and the Guardian all admit sounds like a term that Gwyneth Paltrow would come up with. Although the majority (89%) of employers feel that middle managers are critical to their businesses, nearly three-quarters of Gen Zers would choose "an individual route to progression," focusing on their own growth and personal skills, rather than having to handle other employees. Still, 36% concede they'll probably assume such a role at some point.
A stubborn 16% insist they'll never become a middle manager. Forbes notes that these younger workers are leading the way in a larger "subtle but seismic shift" away from such management roles. "Gen-Z are known for their entrepreneurial mindset—preferring to bring their 'whole self' to projects and spend time cultivating their own brand and approach, rather than spending time managing others," Bisset says, per a release. "However, this reluctance to take on middle management roles could spell trouble for employers later down the line." (More Gen Z stories.)
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